What a thrill it was to be in that beautiful place, standing only a few feet away from the shrine of St. Alban himself, England’s oldest saint and patron.
It was a trip were I literally “got in touch” with some powerful things””the 1,000 year old tower at Glendalough; the pages of a Bible handled in 597 by the founder of our Anglican church; the pages of an original King James Bible (of which we are marking the 400th anniversary).
But more important, it was a chance to also be touched by the spirit of our heritage as Anglican Christians through the mysterious “high crosses” in the Irish countryside: the deeply moving experience of Evensong at Kings College Cambridge; the stillness of Sunday worship at a little parish church; bracing intellectual conversation at a Cambridge college “high table” dinner; bookcases full of leather-bound books at Lambeth.
[i]But more important, it was a chance to also be touched by the spirit of our heritage as Anglican Christians through the mysterious “high crosses” in the Irish countryside: the deeply moving experience of Evensong at Kings College Cambridge; the stillness of Sunday worship at a little parish church; bracing intellectual conversation at a Cambridge college “high table” dinner; bookcases full of leather-bound books at Lambeth.[/i]
I’m going to Branson for my vacation. :+/
Oh, I don’t know……I think for me, it would be good to ‘travel back in time’ to visit and learn more about the history of Christianity in the British Isles; this being a subject of long-standing interest to me.
A few years ago, Nashotah House took a tour to England visiting sites important to our Anglican heritage. I would have loved to have been on it.
I wonder if Bishop Smith got in touch with the truth contained in that 1500 year old bible, something his votes in the HOB indicate he has otherwise forgotten
I was enchanted by his description of the richness of our common Anglican heritage, until I read the part about Jeffrey John being his good friend. At that point I read no farther, because there is nothing one can say after that. At least nothing about Christianity!
#5
Ditto.
Just wondering who paid for this trip, and whether the Dio Arizona is in rough financial straits like the rest of the TEC dioceses.
Properly, from a hierarchical point of view, if AD(CE?) 597 is going to be referenced along with St Augustine as the founding year and founder, wouldn’t it be more proper to reference the one who authorized the “mission” in the first place, Pope Gregory?
I suppose that’s a little picky. However, in a day when Anglicanism is gasping for rooted identity – and all (or most) eyes are on the English Reformation, or on the earliest missionaries to Britain – it seems a bit anachronistic to say what Bp Smith said. In fact, a lot of people, scratching their heads regarding “597” will assume that there is a missing numeral before the three digits: a “one”.
Shall we now have a discussion to air our views on whether Augustine was the founder of “our Anglican church”?
Boy, we’re getting very sloppy.
Rob Eaton+, I agree.
Its difficult to say in what sense Augustine was “the founder of our Anglican church” in 597 AD, except one: he re-started the See of Canterbury, which later (almost by historical accident) became the pre-eminent See in England.
But in any other sense, it is just not accurate. Hints of this emerge even in +Smith’s article: Christianity existed in England from at least the late 2nd century, and probably earlier. St Alban was martyred at the beginning of the third century, and at about the same time Tertullian and other church fathers refer to Christianity being firmly established in the British isles. By the 4th century, British bishops were attending church councils in France and Italy. Augustine met seven bishops of the British churches after arriving in Britain and there is no reason to think that this was all of them.
Augustine certainly played a part in evangelising the Jutes in Kent, but his other attempts to establish Sees at London, Rochester and York failed. The powerhouse for evangelisation of most of Britain turned out to be Lindisfarne rather than Canterbury, and a host of celtic and Anglo-saxon missionaries came from out of the north to win over the pagan anglo-saxons. If not for the Viking invasions of the 8th century (to which Celtic christianity with its lonely and undefendend island retreats was particularly vulnerable), the head See of the Church of England would have been York, or perhaps the Holy Island itself.
The Anglican church has many fathers (apart from the One who is Father to us all); Augustine was one of these, but by no means the most significant.
Apologies for error in my last post, where I referred to Augustine “re-starting” the See of Canterbury. Augustine re-started Christianity in Canterbury, where he took over a former British church which had been abandoned after the Anglo-Saxon invasions. But I don’t think there is any evidence of a See being based there before Augustine – we know that there was a Bishop of London in the 4th century, but we just don’t know where other Sees may have been based, in the south of England.
“Augustine re-started Christianity in Canterbury, where he took over a former British church which had been abandoned after the Anglo-Saxon invasions.”
But Queen Bertha, daughter of the king of Paris, was already a Christian (that’s why A. came), and if memory serves, Bertha’s chapel – now St Martin’s (which I’ve visited – you can still see the original structures) – was not a “former British church’ but in use at the time of Augustine’s arrival. Thousands of Kentish men were baptized in the River Medway on Christmas Day 597, suggesting a lot of work was already underway when A. arrived in May of that year.
Also don’t forget that Patrick , sent from Britain, and his followers were already involved in evangelizing Ireland. Britain, as a Roman outpost was already Christian, at least nominally, after Constantine “Christianized” the Empire. Also St. Columbia, by 563 was in Scotland spreading the Gospel to the Picts.
The point being that Christianity was already established in Britain by the time Augustine of Canterbury arrived. Just not under the control of Rome.
“The point being that Christianity was already established in Britain by the time Augustine of Canterbury arrived. Just not under the control of Rome.”
But being driven westward by the heathen Saxon invaders – the background to the Arthur stories.
Arthur became “Awrdwyr” in Welsh legend, and as you mentioned, he supposedly was driven westward…..into Wales, in fact. British Christianity has a very long history in the Land of my Fathers.
Great to see comments on this, and a wide knowledge of things pertaing to Christianity in Britain in the first five or six centuries AD.
Kmh1, I agree that the church used by Augustine on his arrival in Kent was already in use by the Queen and her chaplain. We believe that this church is the current St Martins.
However, note that Bede says that this church had been in use as a church in the late Roman period before falling into disuse (no doubt as a result of the invasions). So it was a “former British church”. But it would have been more correct if I had written that *Queen Bertha* re-established Christianity in Canterbury, rather than Augustine!
But I also agree with your further implication: we don’t know that Christianity completely disappeared from any of these places, although it probably went underground.
[blockquote] “But being driven westward by the heathen Saxon invaders” [/blockquote]
True, although this only went so far. Augustine probably met the seven British bishops and their entourage in Gloucestershire, indicating that they felt safe to travel openly that far. There is evidence that Christianity still existed in the Midlands even in Augustine’s time. However, it would be another 50 years before the great wave of Irish/Northumbrian evangelisation saw paganism eliminated from the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.